Lately, I've been interested in how different languages express the conditional. How would one say "If I were a monkey, I would live in a tree" or "If you had called me, I would have come" in Tongan/Hawaiian/Maori?

Lately, I've been interested in how different languages express the conditional. How would one say "If I were a monkey, I would live in a tree" or "If you had called me, I would have come" in Tongan/Hawaiian/Maori?

If I were a monkey, I would live in a tree = Inā au keko, inā au e noho i he lā‘au [conditional particle I monkey, conditional particle I verbal particle live locative particle a tree]If you had called me, I would have come = Inā ‘oe e ua hea ia‘u, inā au e ua hele mai. [conditional particle you verbal particle past particle call to-me, conditional particle I verbal particle past particle go particle indicating motion towards the speaker]

I'm not 100% sure about the word order, but the short answer is that the conditional is expressed with the particle inā

Some Eastern Polynesian languages express the conditional with the phrase 'mehemea' or a variation thereof (mena, mehe, me being some of those variations).

Maori uses mehemea, mena, mehe and also has ina to express conditional 'if'. Of the four listed, only ina is truely a verbal particle (the rest would require the use of a verbal particle as me is a preposition.

In Hawaiian, we would use inā for the sentences listed.Inā he keko au, ua noho au ma ke kumulāʻau.If I were a monkey, I'd live in a tree.

Inā ʻoe i kelepona mai iaʻu, ua hele mai nō au.If you called me, I would have come (but I didn't).

Hawaiian also has the conditionals i and ke.

Ariki wrote:Hi Struthiomimus,

Some Eastern Polynesian languages express the conditional with the phrase 'mehemea' or a variation thereof (mena, mehe, me being some of those variations).

Maori uses mehemea, mena, mehe and also has ina to express conditional 'if'. Of the four listed, only ina is truely a verbal particle (the rest would require the use of a verbal particle as me is a preposition.

This is very interesting. I've never thought of me and mehemea in terms of being conditional. I wonder if these terms were once used in that way in Hawaiian. Currently, in Hawaiian we use the word me to mean "like" or "similar to." Like ʻo ia me ka puaʻa.He is like a pig.

Me kēia kāna ʻōlelo.He spoke like this.

Me he lio lā ʻo ia ke holo aku.He runs like a horse.

We also have me he mea, and the phrase usually means "it is/was as if."

Me he mea lā ua ʻaihue ʻia ka manaʻo o ke aliʻi wahine e Piʻikoiakaʻalalā.It was as if the princess's thoughts had been stolen away by Piʻikoiakaʻalalā (because of her worrying about him).

kahihi'o wrote:In Hawaiian, we would use inā for the sentences listed.Inā he keko au, ua noho au ma ke kumulāʻau.If I were a monkey, I'd live in a tree.

Inā ʻoe i kelepona mai iaʻu, ua hele mai nō au.If you called me, I would have come (but I didn't).

Hawaiian also has the conditionals i and ke.

Ariki wrote:Hi Struthiomimus,

Some Eastern Polynesian languages express the conditional with the phrase 'mehemea' or a variation thereof (mena, mehe, me being some of those variations).

Maori uses mehemea, mena, mehe and also has ina to express conditional 'if'. Of the four listed, only ina is truely a verbal particle (the rest would require the use of a verbal particle as me is a preposition.

This is very interesting. I've never thought of me and mehemea in terms of being conditional. I wonder if these terms were once used in that way in Hawaiian. Currently, in Hawaiian we use the word me to mean "like" or "similar to." Like ʻo ia me ka puaʻa.He is like a pig.

Me kēia kāna ʻōlelo.He spoke like this.

Me he lio lā ʻo ia ke holo aku.He runs like a horse.

We also have me he mea, and the phrase usually means "it is/was as if."

Me he mea lā ua ʻaihue ʻia ka manaʻo o ke aliʻi wahine e Piʻikoiakaʻalalā.It was as if the princess's thoughts had been stolen away by Piʻikoiakaʻalalā (because of her worrying about him).

I'll have to see what Pollex says (it may have an entry about mehemea/me).

In some of your examples above they would be more comfortably expressed using penei/pena/pera and ano.

Samoan is the most spoken (370000 speakers), then Tongan (126000) then Tahitian (124000). Tahitian and Maori have many features in common, but I've read that the most similar to Tahitian is Cook Island Maori (also known as Rarotongan).